


fear is what he hides behind the broken facade of criminal

by artsyspikedhair



Series: the problem is in you (but the system's fucked too) [3]
Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Child Abandonment, Child Abuse, Crimes & Criminals, Domestic Violence, Eating Disorders, Implied Childhood Sexual Abuse, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Nice Montparnasse, Non-Consensual Violence, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychopathology & Sociopathy, Suicide, anger issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-25
Updated: 2016-06-25
Packaged: 2018-07-18 04:47:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7300201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artsyspikedhair/pseuds/artsyspikedhair
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happens when you let an abused boy roam the streets on his own is he finds people. For Montparnasse, those people were the Patron-Minette, and more importantly Claquesous. For Enjolras and Gavroche, the person they found was an older, more wrecked Montparnasse.<br/>What happens when you let an abused boy make his own decisions is he often makes the wrong ones.</p>
            </blockquote>





	fear is what he hides behind the broken facade of criminal

Montparnasse was born to a family that would never love him. They couldn't even love each other. He grew up in a suburb, with no way to get anywhere. He wore long flannels to hide his bruised skin, and he learned early on not to show fear. Fear got you beaten, he learned. Fear was what killed his mother, his father said. Montparnasse remembered the bruises shaped like hand-prints on his mother's neck when she was carried to the funeral parlor, but he knew admitting what he saw could get him the same end she had. 

The Thenardiers' became close with his father soon after his mom died. He was seven, and years of fists and screaming left him prepared for the girls. Eponine had been a princess once, while the quiet eyed lark had a flurry of fists beaten down against her. Montparnasse almost felt sorry for her, but soon Jean Valjean rescued her, leaving Eponine and Azelma to suffer in Cosette's place. Montparnasse often helped them with their chores, panhandling and drug-dealing. He learned to like Eponine, who was his age, and Azelma, who was a mere six year old. Montparnasse didn't know right from wrong, and Mr Thenardier often gave him money to buy clothes in exchange for his services in helping out the business, so Montparnasse developed an almost hero-worship. He still went to school, and graduated elementary school with flying colors. Eponine and Azelma weren't allowed to go to school. The state didn't know they existed.

One day in the summer after fifth grade, Montparnasse's father had broken a couple of Montparnasse's ribs. Eponine threatened to call the cops, so Montparnasse's dad drove into the city and left the boy at the library with twenty dollars and a threat, saying if he ever darkened their doorstep again, he would be killed in the same fashion his mother was. Montparnasse was relieved to be out of the house. 

He hit puberty that summer, growing tall among the city parks and restaurant dumpsters. He made friends with a group of homeless kids who called themselves the Patron-Minette. Montparnasse was struck by how flawlessly they survived, pick-pocketing and avoiding the police. He became especially close with a fifteen year old, Claquesous. Montparnasse hit it off with him, and the two shared stories from their lives before. Claquesous was a quiet monster, only speaking to Montparnasse at night-time. He wore a hooded sweatshirt so nobody could see his face. He had been disfigured by his own mother, who was jealous of having a son that looked better than her. Montparnasse only saw his face at night among the streetlamps, where the two boys would kiss. Montparnasse considered Claquesous the love of his life. 

But Claquesous saw Montparnasse as young and easy to manipulate. He was a violent man by nature, and had no empathy. His childhood of abuse had made a sociopath out of him, and so he could not tell his occasional beatings of Monteparnasse hurt the young boy. It was common, among the Patron-Minette, to hit a member if they got caught, but Claquesous took an almost savage pleasure in it. Montparnasse assumed this was how life always was. He deserved it anyway, for he got caught more often than not. He was scared all the time, but he never showed it. He still went to school, but it would have taken a far more observant teacher than the ones Montparnasse had to notice his slight flinches. 

One night, Claquesous and Montparnasse were kissing. Montparnasse was underneath the older boy. Claquesous was seventeen at this point, Montparnasse thirteen. Claquesous took off his pants and told Montparnasse to roll over. Montparnasse said no, he wanted to continue kissing. Claquesous told him if he really loved him he would do this. "This is how my father showed me how to love." Claquesous said. Montparnasse knew Claquesous' father was the only good man in Claquesous' life, and so he rolled over. The rest of the night was a blur of pain and quiet whispers of encouragement from Claquesous. Montparnasse hated what was happening, but he couldn't say that because Claquesous' hand was over his mouth. The morning after, Claquesous said "You know, you weren't really what I expected last night. I'm done with you." 

Claquesous' rape and subsequent rejection deeply affected Montparnasse. He went from being in love to being terrified, and this was not the type of fear he was used to hiding. He started sleeping in shelters so he wouldn't have to be around the Patron-Minette, and whenever he saw Claquesous he began hyperventilating. He had terrible flashbacks, but he also desperately wanted to be loved again. It was around this time Montparnasse stopped using his money to buy food and instead invested in expensive clothes. He wore leather jackets and spiked collars, trying with all his might to give off the 'don't fucking touch me' vibe. 

Montparnasse discovered the legal system at around fourteen. He spent the next year trying, and eventually succeeding, to get emancipated. He also rediscovered Eponine and Azelma, who were newcomers at the shelter he was staying at. They had a little brother, Gavroche. Eponine had suffered in a similar way Montparnasse had, from her father's 'friends'. The two comforted each other when panic hit. Azelma was a master at making jokes out of her suffering, and passed the skill on to Montparnasse. Unfortunately, the girls were soon found by their mother and forced back into their family. But Gavroche was allowed to stay. 

Montparnasse was older now, and he'd be damned before he let another boy end up in the same situations he had. Montparnasse had his own apartment by the time he was sixteen, but he still did his damnest to help Gavroche in anyway he could. The boy did well on the streets, befriending the shopkeepers and younger homeless kids, but Gavroche still needed an adult in his life, and Montparnasse, a teen though he was, was that adult for Gavroche. Montparnasse wasn't eating anymore because he wanted to be unattractive and he became high on the feeling of hunger. But Montparnasse told Gavroche the importance of eating, and he got the boy into a free mental health service, because in the type of house the Thenardier's ran, it would be a miracle to get out without PTSD. Montparnasse didn't trust adults though, so he never used the services he told Gavroche about. 

Montparnasse was seventeen when he met Enjolras. Enjolras was newly homeless, and he had tried to rob a rich banker, and the police where coming. Montparnasse grabbed the kid's hand and ran to his apartment. Enjolras would be forever grateful. 

When Montparnasse first met Enjolras, he fell half in love with him. Enjolras was almost as young as Montparnasse was when Claquesous raped him though, so Montparnasse knew better than to act on his feelings. He let Enjolras live with him, and he gave him the tricks of the trade in terms of how to survive without eating, because Enjolras was desperate to look more manly and Montparnasse figured, hey, if he was fine surely Enjolras would be fine too. 

Montparnasse was not fine. He was fainting often, and whenever he did eat it came back up. Montparnasse had also fallen into the first and worst depression he had ever been in. His grades slipped, his flashbacks became worse and more frequent, and he didn't get accepted into a single college. Worse than that, Enjolras was slowly falling apart and it was Montparnasse's fault.

Montparnasse's guidance counselor, Mr. Valjean, tried to help him once. Montparnasse recognized him as the lark's savior, and wanted nothing more to do with him, but he had walked into the office anyway in hopes of doing something about the whole college thing. Instead, Mr. Valjean confronted him. "Montparnasse," he said in a stern voice, causing the boy to flinch slightly, "I noticed you haven't been eating properly." Montparnasse almost panicked. Nobody was supposed to know about his eating habits until he inevitably died of starvation He decided to be obstinate about it. 

"What makes you say that?" he asked. 

"A boy came in worrying about you. He said you weren't eating and that you might have an eating disorder." 

Montparnasse replied with "That's pathetic. Boys don't get eating disorders, Valjean. I'm fine." He knew who had came in worrying about him. It was Gueulemer, the second youngest member of the Patron Minette, after Montparnasse. He had been close to Montparnasse once, because they were both middle schoolers and the rest were all older teens. But now was senior year and the last thing Montparnasse wanted was a boy from his past ruining the future he had. 

Valjean would not give up, claiming that Montparnasse needed get treatment and if he didn't, he could get kicked out of school for being a danger to himself. Montparnasse swore at him and left. He would not let a meddling guidance counselor control him, especially not who had ruined one of his friend's lives by leaving Eponine to live in her physically and sexually abusive family. Montparnasse decided he would kill himself, because a life spent getting treatment wasn't worth living. Montparnasse needed his disordered habits. He didn't know how to handle living in his body without them. 

But he tried to undo the damage he had done before he left. He tried to get Enjolras to eat one last time before he left the apartment for good. Montparnasse ran to the shelter Gavroche was living in. 

"Gav, I'm sorry I couldn't be a better father for you." He said. Gavroche could tell something was off about Montparnasse, but wasn't sure what. 

"You're the only one I've got. Parnasse, don't cry. Crying's not very punk rock!" 

Montparnasse knew he would miss out on Gavroche's and Enjolras' future. He couldn't stop himself from crying. He had tried to give Gavroche the childhood he never had, and it worked. Gavroche was happy. Montparnasse knew he needed to tell someone what he was going to do. "Gavroche, I'm leaving. I'm not going to be around no more. I'm sorry, and I love you, and you're the most punk rock kid I know." 

"Where are you going?" Gavroche was scared, but he could tell nothing he did would change Montparnasse's mind. 

Montparnasse and Gavroche both had a love of the band Death Cab For Cutie. So Montparnasse told Gavroche, "I'm going into the dark." 

"I can't follow you." Gavroche replied. There was too much he had to live for. 

"I know." And with that, Montparnasse couldn't stay one second longer. He was breaking down. His heart was pounding, the memories of being Gavroche's age were coming back, and Montparnasse knew if he didn't kill himself now he would end up dying of heartbreak anyway. He bought a razor and went to his mother's grave. He killed himself, and all he felt as the blood left his body was relief. Now his time spent in hell would be over.


End file.
